Odds are you’ve heard of someone whose first collegiate drinking experience didn’t go very well. Maybe they just got sick, maybe they were arrested or sent to the hospital, or maybe it was even worse. The truth is, many people show up to college having never consumed alcohol in a social setting before, and for such people the first few times can be overwhelming and intimidating.
Like it or not, alcohol and partying are an integral part of the modern college experience. Yes there are many people who choose not to participate, but the majority will at some point. Students who show up having never drank before, however, often face a much greater learning curve as far as tolerance, behavior, and overall safety than students who drank intermittently in high school.
As someone who drank periodically (gasp!) in high school, and someone who knows both people who did and people who didn’t, I can say with great certainty that my choice is, in the long run, the safer one. When I reached a certain age, about the end of my junior year, my family collectively decided it was alright for me to have a few drinks in a safe setting. Appropriate settings include:
Family parties: You most likely already know everyone there, you won’t be driving anywhere, and you’re just with family. Why not?
Family dinners: Nothing stimulates conversation quite like a beer or glass of wine with food and family.
Graduation parties: Take everyone’s keys, obviously, but you’ve made it and you’re moving on. Celebrate!
As a parent, every child needs to be looked at as a unique and separate situation. No two people react to alcohol the same, and no two people have the same history and opinions about it, so tactics and strategies will have to change with the people they apply to. But the ultimate goal, to keep your kid safe when they go off to college, never changes.
As I said earlier, I do know some people who went from zero drinking in high school to full-fledged college partying right away, and the results are rarely good ones. Having never partaken before, many new drinkers in college have no knowledge of their limits and usually end up greatly exceeding them, which you probably know doesn’t typically end well. They’re most susceptible to peer pressure from other intoxicated students who will plead for their friends to take that shot or shotgun that beer, and they’ll almost always end up greatly regretting it.
Although I know the stance of defending underage drinking is a typical one for a 19-year-old college student, my opinions come more from experience and a hope for safety than an affinity to break rules. I’m not advocating a lowering of the legal drinking age, nor am I urging all high school seniors to become full-fledged social drinkers. I’m merely pointing out that the best way to understand your body’s reaction to alcohol is by consuming it, and the quicker we learn this the quicker we’ll cut down on the number of incidents on campuses all over America.
Cheers!
